On the Christmas Eve table, the Polish Catholics usually have Ukrainian borscht, Hebrew carp, Greek fish and Russian vareniki. Even the Poles themselves sometimes laugh with such a festive “Polish set.” Preparing for my husband Christmas Eve menu (I celebrate Christmas after the New Year as I am Russian Ortodox), I decided not to go too far from tradition and leave the main ingredients – carp, beetroot soup and vegetarian polish dumplings with mushrooms. And here is the result of our efforts: beetroot soup with the polish dumplings with mushrooms and baked carp with oranges!
Ingredients:
- 1 kg beetroot
- 1/4 celery root
- 1 small apple
- 1.5 tbsp vinegar
- 1 onion
- 2 cloves of garlic
- 20 g dry mushrooms
- 1 bay leaves
- 2 cloves
- 2 peas of sweet pepper
- 5 peas of black pepper
- 2 smoked prunes
- salt
- marjoram to taste
Cooking method:
- Put unpeeled beetroot, onion, apple, celery on a baking sheet lined with foil and bake for about 1 hour or until the vegetables become soft. At this time, rinse dry mushrooms, pour with cold water, add a clove of garlic, cut in half, pepper, sweet pepper, bay leaf and cook for about 20 minutes on low heat. Remove the mushrooms (use them for dumplings) and keep the broth.
- Peel beetroots and celery and cut into strips. Cut the apple and onions into quarters. So cook vegetables pour with 1.3 litres of water, and add the mushroom broth, the whole prunes and close the lid. Bring to a boil over low heat (it will take about 20 minutes). Then add cloves and hold on the fire for another 10 minutes. Pour in the vinegar, mix and set aside for 1 hour.
- At this time, you can cook Polish dumplings with mushrooms.
- Add salt and the chopped garlic clove. Set aside the soup until it has completely cooled down. Then strain.
- Before serving, heat up and serve with dumplings.
